About the blogger

Stephanie Curtis has produced events, daily news shows, documentaries, conferences and call-ins for MPR News. She also was among the pioneering producers who launched The Current. You can hear her discuss movies every Thursday on The Cube Critics.

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My husband was out of work 3 1/2 years, basically the entire time my now 19 year old daughter was in high school. It affected my kids greatly, as we couldn’t afford many of the activities their peers were doing & we lost our home. They learned if they wanted to do an activity like Youth In Government (which both my kids did), then we had to find ways to pay for it, often financial aid. Which requires a disclosure of details that sometimes you just don’t want to talk about. Clothes come from 2nd hand stores, which they didn’t seem to mind most of the time. At college, my daughter now is extremely conscious of how she spends her money, even tracking the number of meals she eats at the cafeteria to make sure she isn’t going to run out of money. In my personal experience, men are affected more by job loss because their identity comes first from their work, then family. My husband now works for a retailer rather than in IT & he struggles with his change in circumstances, even though he is grateful for the job.

Marcie Jefferys

There are things families can do and resources they can use to reduce or eliminate the impact of some of these adverse experiences on their children’s development. This includes accessing mental health–both for parents and children, and early childhood programs that help ensure children’s development stay on track. Many of these services need more public support but in the long run, the public and personal ‘return on investment’ in terms of health and productivity will more than offset the initial investment.

Greta

It may result in better money management by the children as they get older. My parents are products of the depression and spending unnecessarily was always a questioned and rarely done. We always lived below our means.

Al

While growing up one parent was employed on and off while the other was under employed. They gave me one important lesson for life “Do not live like they did”. This lived by this lesson and i believe this had a positive impact on my life.

Andrea

My dad was unemployed much of the 1980s, and I would agree that it had a major impact on my aspirations and perception of what opportunities were available to me. I had a very clear, though unspoken, understanding that I was not allowed to cost my family money. I didn’t participate in sports, I didn’t ask for clothes, I didn’t even ask to participate in school ski trips or scout travel programs. I remember crying in school but not knowing why at the time. As an adult I can now reflect that I think I was just really stressed out. I knew I was required to go to college, but when choosing between a school in far away New York state and school in Milwaukee (we lived in east central Wisconsin), it didn’t matter which school I liked better, I chose the school that would mean less financial impact on my family. And that was even after my dad had found a job. On the up side, my mom had part time work, and we kids viewed her as something of a super hero holding it all together, pinching every penny. I am now the primary wage earner in my family, perhaps emulating my mom’s amazing feats.

Marcie Jefferys

Prof Megan Gunnar at the U of MN has done research on how much stress young children can handle by measuring cortisol levels in the brain. Stress is a part of life and necessary for development but Prof Gunnar has found that when stress reaches toxic levels–as in the case of many of the children whose parents have lost jobs–it has a negative impact on the building of circuits in the brain, with long-term effects.

Stephanie

Marcie,

Thanks. Here is more information on that research about how kids brains are affected by stress:

As a freshman at the University of Minnesota, it’s incredible how much more practical we all think here. The question is often “what job will that degree get me?”. Remember, we went through our entire high school careers with a period of high unemployment. Granted, there are still too many standalone psychology majors without a supplemental degree, but students are thinking much more about job prospects when for my older siblings, they assumed ANY degree would land them a decent paying job. There are positives and negatives from this mindset. I think many students are making better decisions about their futures, but sometimes they end up in a program that they dislike. I have seen many students in science and math degrees simply because they are good at it, but not because they like it. Most still have time to switch majors, but I feel that practicality is supplanting our more romanticized aspirations while we prepare for our future.

Ann Thomas

I’m a woman in my 60’s and when I was in high school and college my Dad’s work took a severe downfall. I think it’s a matter of how the parents handle it. We always felt secure, we were told that we all had to pull together, we tracked every penny we spent as a family. My parents found fun things to do that were free and we all talk about it now as one of the most memorable parts of our life.

Most importantly, what we now think is that we learned how to handle an economic downturn. I went through the rest of my life knowing I would be able to handle it, and I did have to–several times.

I was so lucky that my parents modeled how to do this for me,

http://angrybychoice.fieldofscience.com Dana

I appreciate all the feel good stories, but not all families have the resources or support systems to get through difficult times successfully. For every great learning experience anecdote, how many bad outcomes occur? I expect the negative greatly outweighs the positive.

Makeda Norris

Racial and ethnic minorities have known how to deal with this for as long as this country has been in existence. They could give lessons in resiliance

Shannon

My family has struggled since the MN slow down. My husband after 1 year of unemployment got work with a school district. After two years was once again laid off due to budget cuts. I caring for four children have taken on 5 different part time positions during this time to keep us above water.

Another issue which has become exasperated by job loss is mental wellness. My husband became depressed which became a severe depressive disorder. Despite linking into therapy, his illness has hospitalized him about 15 times since January of 2011. He just recently spent 7 weeks in the hospital was out for 3 and went back in yesterday.

Without financial stability our utilities and shelter needs are always a struggle and my 4 children are kept in the loop of being creative and finding solutions. They were on board going the extra mile until recently. They are soooo tired (as is their mother).

Despite all of this I have found ways to get them involved with extra curricular activities for the first time because it is now a need (rather than a want or privilege). And, I have spent much of my energy making certain that their school support networks know their needs. I speak to teachers, deans, principals and coaches so they know I see them as part of my team in raising these children.

They know I need their eyes wide open and to communicate with me immediately if their work is not showing their ability. All of them are excelling academically.

When my children feel the heaviness of what we are coping with to survive, I say, “This is not what I ever intended for our family. I believe that there are gifts and lessons that you are getting which I could never have given to you any other way. We must trust that you will take our experience into the world and do great things.” “You are learning more than most of your peers about relationships, values and the world.” “Relationships/family are what is truly important. Not things!”

Rick

My Dad went through the depression without a father and had to forage for food in dumpsters. He worked 3 jobs at a time to provide for his family instilling in us a great work ethic. He was insistant my brother and I went to college. Both of us have worked hard and now have great retirements. We were careful with our money raising our 7 children who all went to college and now all have good jobs. As I look at what happen, I think the most important lesson we can provide is the importance of working the best we can and saving for any challenges we might have to face. We need to provide for others as well as our self – that means donating to charities and saving money.